George Isobar reviews March weather 4.08.09

If the entire month of March passes by with nary a flake of snow, then April must pay the price.

That’s apparently how it went this year. With just a small amount of snow falling one day last month, March ended up with only a trace of the white stuff, matched only by 1991.

“That was so odd to have a nearly snowless March,” said Morenci area climate observer George Isobar. “We had 13 inches two years ago and the average from the last three decades is about 5.5 inches. We’ve had some rather significant snowfalls in March over the years.”

If it hadn’t been for the light snow that fell March 29, there wouldn’t have been anything at all.

The snow might have been absent, but that’s not the case for rainfall. At 6.10 inches, last March was by far the wettest since the current records were started in 1975. The March average is about 2.8 inches.

“We had nearly a month’s worth of rainfall during two different storms last month,” Isobar said.

That situation led to a lot of flooding in the area.

“It’s been a long time since I’ve seen Bean Creek that far into Wakefield Park,” Isobar said. “The same thing at Riverside. It was really extensive.”

The flood gave the creek a good cleaning, Isobar said.

“I think there’s only one log across the river from Main Street north past the cemetery now,” he said. “Things always get rearranged in a heavy flood.”

Temperature

What a variable month for temperature, Isobar noted. From a low of 4° recorded March 3, the extreme on the other end came in at 70° on the 17th.